FOOD OF WEST VIRGINIA BIRDS 17 



been opened by the Red-headed Woodpeckers when the corn was "in 

 the milk" and many of the ears greatly injured. This damage, however, 

 is not general, and one does not often see a field in which these Wood- 

 peckers have carried on their destructive work. Very little damage 

 is done by the birds to the wheat and oats, though English Sparrows 

 are quite destructive at times. 



Birds and Vegetables. 



Few vegetables are injured by the birds. The Baltimore Oriole is 

 accused of eating green peas, though I think this accusation is rather 

 traditional than real; the Goldfinch or "Lettuce Bird" feeds on the 

 tender leaves of some of our succulent garden plants, but no real harm 

 is done by them; and sweet corn is sometimes attacked by the Wood- 

 peckers. But altogether the injury done by birds to vegetables is not 

 worth mentioning. On the other hand it would be impossible to grow 

 vegetables were it not for the birds that destroy the Insects that feed 

 upon them. Throughout this bulletin reference is made in many places 

 to the birds that eat insects that are injurious to vegetables. 



i 

 Birds and Weed Seeds. 



As destroyers of weed-seeds birds do some of their very best service. 

 The Sparrows are particularly helpful in this way. Among the hard- 

 ships of the farmer in West Virginia is the necessity of working con- 

 tinuously through the entire summer to keep down the great number of 

 weeds that spring up everywhere. Each year he must keep up the 

 fight and so persistent are some species of weeds that they increase 

 in spite of all the pulling, hoeing and plowing. Of late certain weeds 

 have been imported and these add to the troubles of the past. On account 

 of the great amount of labor made necessary by the abounding growth of 

 weeds of almost unnumbered varieties, the agriculturist, horticulturist, 

 market gardener and home gardener gladly welcome every means of 

 abating the weed nuisance. Our greatest help comes from the birds. 

 When many of the insects are dead and others are dormant, when the 

 cold days of winter come and many of the hardier species of birds re- 

 main with us, they attack the great stores of food that nature has pro- 

 vided for them, and many of the birds turn to the abundant crop of 

 weed seeds that ripen each year. A number of the Sparrows spend 

 the winter in West Virginia. These, especially, feed upon that sort 

 of food. In one of Prof. Beal's publications he says, "Examination of 

 many stomachs shows that in winter the Tree Sparrow feeds entirely 

 upon seeds of weeds; and probably each bird consumes about one-fourth 

 of an ounce a day. In an article contributed to the New York Tribune 

 in 1881 the writer estimated the amount of weed seed annually destroyed 

 by these birds in the State of Iowa. Upon the basis of one-fourth 

 of an ounce of seed eaten daily by each bird, and supposing that the 

 birds averaged ten to each square mile, and that they remain in their 

 winter range two hundred days, we shall have a total of 1,750,000 

 pounds, or 875 tons, of weed seeds consumed by this one species in 



